National Safety Month: 89% of Americans Don't Have Emergency Contact

Hermosa Beach, Calif. —June 12, 2012—EmergencyLink, the first and only free emergency ID network, today celebrates National Safety Month with its official launch and the findings of its national “Ready for Emergencies” survey. While nearly all Americans (92 percent) believe it’s important to be prepared for an emergency, almost as many (89 percent) have not done the basic preparation of storing emergency information in their wallet and mobile phone. That means nearly 211 million Americans have a major safety problem: they aren’t ready to handle serious or life-threatening situations like a missing child, car accident, or being found unconscious.

EmergencyLink solves the critical need for an emergency plan overlooked by most Americans. EmergencyLink is a free emergency identification network that allows anyone to store their important information and documents, easily share those materials with family and friends, and offers a free 24-hour emergency response center to aid members in an emergency.

“Our goal is to help people be better prepared for and to help them in an emergency,” said Founder and CEO, Michael Soenen. “In our national survey and interviews with the emergency first responders it is alarmingly clear that people are not prepared and first responders often do not have the information needed to best help in an emergency. Our free, simple to use service ensures first responders will always have your critical medical and emergency contact information.”

Consider how many emergencies Americans face:

    Every year, 1 million people are admitted to hospitals unconscious. Every day an average of 27,400 car accidents happen.  Yet 86 percent of Americans have not provided their emergency contacts with the critical information needed for a medical emergency. What can your emergency contacts actually tell the hospital to help speed your care?

    Nearly 800,000 children go missing annually. While the first hour is the most crucial for a child’s safe return, it often takes parents more than three hours to gather the critical information needed to put out a report. How can you cut that down to less than five minutes?

EmergencyLink helps with these and other emergency situations through five core service features:

    Store Emergency Information:  The safe, secure online account allows members to store everything from emergency contacts, allergies and chronic conditions, medical information, insurance policy numbers and doctor information, to copies of documents like a living will, passport and credit cards. Members can add dependents (child, elder or even a pet) to their account. They also identify the contacts that receive access to this information, in the event of an emergency.

    Share Emergency Information: Secure electronic sharing of your information with family and friends is fast and easy through EmergencyLink. Simply add contacts via the “I’m Sharing With” tab and they will be sent an email informing them that you shared your information. Users can share information in five levels (contact and profile information, emergency medical information, emergency contacts, medical contacts, other important contacts) so the right people get the right information in an emergency, while protecting your privacy.

    EmergencyLink’s 24-hour Emergency Response Center: Allows first responders around-the-clock access to a member’s information. When contacted, the call center staff immediately executes the member’s emergency response plan to inform the designated contacts.  Police, fire fighters and emergency medical technicians are trained to look for medical identification and emergency contacts. EmergencyLink makes it simple - every member gets plastic emergency ID cards and tags to put in a wallet, on key chains, running shoes, luggage tags, kid's backpacks, etc.

    EmergencyLink’s Free Mobile Apps: Allow members to upload and share information on-the-go, and is available on iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices. For the iPhone, a special option posts your account number on your screensaver to help first responders if your phone is locked.

    Emergency Reports: If a child or loved one is injured or goes missing, EmergencyLink members can use the one-click reports to provide police or medical professionals with all the information needed to take immediate action, whether it’s critical health information for doctors or to create missing persons reports or Amber Alerts.

“As first responders, we are trained to look for identifying and emergency contact information on anyone we treat. Unfortunately, there are many times in which no information is available. EmergencyLink tags, key cards and other identifiers are an incredible relief to see,” said Mark Kirunchyk, a police officer in the County of Los Angeles. “From an accident to a missing person, there isn’t a situation I’ve gone into where we weren’t looking for more information. EmergencyLink gives us what we need, and fast, so that we know who to call, what not to administer, and how to quickly help anyone we treat.”

Additional survey findings:

Americans feel overconfident, when they’re vastly under prepared:

    * 71 percent of Americans feel prepared to handle a medical emergency when they’re not available, but only 1 in 4 parents have an emergency contact list for babysitters and 29 percent of American parents have no emergency plan in place whatsoever

    * 29 percent of Americans have an emergency contact in their phone (but with 1/4 of smartphone owners using auto-locking features, it’s hard to say this helps)

   * Amongst the 161 million+ Americans that feel prepared for an emergency situation and are unable to communicate their medical information or emergency contact info (like being found unconscious), more than half (52 percent) don’t have their critical emergency contact information in their wallet or phone

Emergency contacts are largely left in the dark:

   *  86 percent of Americans have not provided their emergency contacts with all the critical information needed for a medical emergency (personal contacts, health insurance information, allergy/chronic condition information, etc.)

   *  Less than a quarter (24 percent) of people have told their emergency contacts their organ donor status

  *   Just 37 percent of Americans have shared their health insurance information or their doctor’s information with their emergency contacts

  *   Almost 1 in 4 (23 percent) of Americans do not have an emergency contact

About EmergencyLink

EmergencyLink is the world’s first and only emergency ID network that lets anyone store their important information and documents, easily share those materials with family and friends, and offers a free 24-hour emergency response center to aid members in an emergency. Completely free for members, EmergencyLink’s services include a safe and secure website and mobile app. Every member receives account ID tags and cards to put in a wallet, on keychain, running shoes, luggage, kid's backpack, etc. EmergencyLink maintains state-of-the-art security practices certified by Norton Secured. To find out more about EmergencyLink and to sign-up, visit: www.EmergencyLink.com.

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On behalf of Emergency Link, the polling company ™, inc. conducted an online omnibus survey of 1,050 adults (aged 18+) nationwide. The survey was fielded May 14-16, 2012.